Establishment of the PB

The project is based on establishing PBs to enable farmers to meet demands from high-end markets and hopefully increase their income as a result. Therefore, it is crucial to the project to establish good PBs that cooperates well. Like we have presented earlier in this study, the project documents have multiple criteria for selection of members and leaders, as well as detailed

information on how the PBs should work. In this section we will look at how the PBs work in the field, based on the experience of the farmers included in the project, as well as our own field experience.

4.1.1 Establishment

According to the project documents, most of the PBs would be already existing groups, and this seems to be accurate from the interviews. The majority of the PBs were based on already existing saving groups, political groups, groups from former projects, and groups

from different government initiatives. This may have been an advantage as they seemed to be familiar with working in groups and how to organize themselves. Furthermore, according to the same documents, the PB members were supposed to fit certain criteria to be able to participate in the project. These criteria were:

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• A demonstrated level of interest or experience in the selected value chain

• Interest in improving productivity and quality

• Interest in investing along with peers to reach high-end markets

• Access to land and water required for the selected value chain

• Access to finance through a savings group or other mechanisms

One of the underlying assumptions in this project is that a strong selection of PB members will increase the likelihood of succeeding. Therefore, it is important to take the selection of

participants into the evaluation. From our experience there was no rigid selection process connected to the groups implemented in the project, and it seems like most of the participants joined the project as they were already part of a group. In a few cases, the project arranged village meetings through extension officers or arranged training for farmers in an area, in order to form groups. Key informants told us however, that the project was not involved in selecting the members of the PBs, and AKF were mainly teaching them about the benefits of working in groups and urging them to form groups.

Figure 3: Establishment of the PBs

From the diagram we can see that most of the groups included in the project were already existing prior to the start of the project, and it made sense to ask the key informants about why their group was selected to participate. The criteria for PB members would only apply to newly

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formed groups, we therefore tried to figure out if groups were selected on similar criteria. The majority of the groups did not have an answer to this question, as many of them were approached based on the reasons that they were already an existing group and they were operating within a certain value chain. This makes it difficult for us to determine precisely how the selection process was conducted.

Furthermore, there is a conflict related to the selection process. Most of the PBs in the project were already existing groups when they were implemented in the project, which is according to the project documents. However, by approaching existing groups, the project will have

less influence when it comes to selecting participants and forming groups. A rigid selection process is crucial to achieve well-functioning PBs, according to the project documents, and there seems be a conflict in the selection process between approaching already existing groups and selecting motivated and skilled farmers to the project.

Despite the unclarity when it comes to selecting the participants, two of the 25 groups gave the impression of having been selected based on their well-

functioning organizations and achievements. One of them was a woman only group in Mtwara.

They were very organized and seemed to get along well. They would work on the group plot from 7am to noon, and then on their own plot from 2pm to 5pm. They had accessed a loan of 2,000,000Tsh. a few years ago for investments, and they sold most of what they produced as a group. The other group was five young men in Masasi who were running a poultry farm and seemed to be working well together. They were all invested in the project and were ambitious about expanding their business. There are good examples on the types of groups that should have been included in the project, and there is reason to believe that they have been selected based on a thorough selection process.

According to the project documents, the project was aiming to establish PBs with an average of 55 to 60 members each. However, we found the number of members to be significantly lower than that. The 25 PBs we interviewed had an average of 12.9 members, the biggest group had 40 members and the lowest had 5. The group size was one of the important aspects in order to reach the quantity high-end markets demand. The small group size may therefore have had an impact

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on the PBSs’ ability to produce the required quantities to reach high-end markets, as we will discuss further in the next chapter.

Members per PB

Max. 40

Min. 5

Average 12.9

Table 1: Members per PB

4.1.2 Selection of leaders and members

Almost all PBs we talked to were open to take in new members, but it did not seem like they were familiar with the criteria set by the project for selecting members. The PBs had their own selection criteria, but usually it was rather easy to become a member. Living in the village and operating within the same value chain was enough for most PBs. Age and gender

restrictions were in use as well. Some of the criteria set by AKF may have been fulfilled by new members, but it is likely that it was by default and not due to the selection process. The key informants we talked to were often hesitant on this question, and it seemed like many of them came up with some criteria on the spot. None of them could list the criteria set in the project documents.

The PBs have a structure where they have three leaders in form of a chairman, a secretary and a treasurer, who worked as a leader could variate between the three titles. These three leaders are usually appointed by the group nominating members for the positions and then voting for them.

None of the PBs had any criteria for who could get into leader positions. According the project documents, the project should identify leaders who are demonstrating entrepreneurial qualities in form of management skills, financial understanding and education. It seems, however, that the groups are in control of picking their own leaders without any intervention from the project. At the briefing in April this was confirmed by AFK staff, the project had not helped the PBs select leaders for the group. Furthermore, the project aimed to have people in part-time or full-time position as business managers for the PB, but every PB leader we talked to volunteered to do the extra work and did not get any compensation. In addition, all the PB leaders were full-time

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farmers and had limited experience in business management, as well as having limited education.

This may have limited the PBs in developing their business.